What would you do in 75 minutes to introduce your colleagues to spatial thinking and analysis? Recently I had the opportunity to do just that, when my Esri colleague Laura Bowden and I conducted a spatial thinking technical workshop at the 2012 Esri International User Conference. I share our outline and reflections in the hopes that it will be of assistance as you plan your own workshops and classes.

First, we were greatly encouraged by the inclusion of such a workshop in the conference for what we believe was the first time. Second, we decided to structure the workshop by introducing how several scholars have defined spatial thinking, plus our own reflections from the standpoint of GIS in education, and followed this with demonstrations of how to use spatial thinking in grappling with real world situations and data using several different tools. In essence, then, we sought to demonstrate “research into practice.”.....

"Our stuff often says a lot about us, whether we own a hybrid car or a station wagon, a MacBook Pro or an ancient desktop. Among other things, cell phone brands say something about socio-economics – it takes a lot of money to buy a new iPhone 5 (and even more money to keep up with the latest models that come out faster than plan upgrades do). Consider, then, this map of Washington, D.C., which uses geolocated tweets, and the cell phone metadata attached to them, to illustrate who in town is using iPhones (red dots) and who's using Androids (green dots)."

Two Maps for History Class. Historypin is a photo sharing site that uses Google Maps to display collections of historical photos. Historypin offers several projects and tours that users can engage with as well as specific ...

On the right is a map view to show the current location of the satellite, with an embedded Google Earth window below to the view from the satellite. On the left is a very innovative feature that allows you to choose your location ...

Map number 7 shows what New Yorkers complain about the most in their beloved city. The complaints are split into noise, graffiti and litter. It is no surprise that most New Yorkers complain about noise in Manhattan, well because it is one of the largest cities in the world, of course there is going to be noise. And then looking on the outskirts of the main city in Manhattan there are mostly complaints about litter. The map is mostly blue in most areas. As for graffiti there are a couple pockets spread out which is where I’m assuming most gang activity takes place. Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn is where most of the graffiti is located according to this map. I liked this ma because it shows what you’re going to see or hear in certain places in the City area.

"Freedom House has been at the forefront in monitoring threats to media independence since 1980. A free press plays a key role in sustaining and monitoring a healthy democracy, as well as in contributing to greater accountability, good government, and economic development. Most importantly, restrictions on media are often an early indicator that governments intend to assault other democratic institutions."

This interactive map shows some intriguing spatial patterns about the freedom of press internationally. What other patterns to you see in matching up with the most free presses in the world (in green)? How does a free (or not free press) influence the cultural and political values of a country?

The Brazilian government's geographic department (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística-roughly equivalent to the U.S. Census Bureau) has compiled an fantastic interactive world factbook (available in English and Spanish as well as Portuguese). The ease of navigation allows the user to conduct a specific search of simply explore demographic, economic, environmental and development data on any country in the world.

The world, here, is literally at your fingertips. It is a simple way for anyone to locate a multitude of data about any given place around the world. It is another way that brings the whole world that much closer in this technological era.

One of a number of large wildfires that have affected northern California in 2012, the Chips fire burned more than 75,000 acres by the time firefighters had contained it.

2012 is going to go down as the year in United States history as the year with the most acrec burned in a single year (statistics only go back to 1960). The two featured images were taken earlier this month to display a Northern California wildfire; both with the same spatial resolution and acquired for the same instrument (Advanced Land Imager on EO-1 satellite), yet they are quite distinct. One shows an aerial photograph, displaying exactly what standard visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (showing us what our eyes would normally see). The other image displays a false color (near infrared) image.

Questions to ponder: what advantages does each image have for analyzing the fire damage? Drawbacks? How does the data from both images work together to create a more complete picture of the situation?

The first image displays a better visual of exactly where the fire damaged the land, the second image doesn't provide a clear visual to someone, the land effected is foggy. If I was going to visit this specific area in Northern California I would much rather use the first aerial image.

The first image gives a good spatial shot of where the exact hot spots are located that cannot be seen by the naked eye. The second photo will give you a spatial view of what you can actually see. Both are needed to put out the hot spot because they each will provide two different solutions to stop the burning acres.

2012 is going to go down in United States history as the year with the most acres burned in a single year (statistics only go back to 1960). The two featured images were taken earlier this month to display a Northern California wildfire; both with the same spatial resolution and acquired for the same instrument (Advanced Land Imager on EO-1 satellite), yet they are quite distinct. One shows an aerial photograph, displaying exactly what standard visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (showing us what our eyes would normally see). The other image displays a false color (near infrared) image.

Questions to ponder: what advantages does each image have for analyzing the fire damage? Drawbacks? How does the data from both images work together to create a more complete picture of the situation?

Interactive maps link everything from music to food SUMMARY: Interactive maps are becoming standard for websites, as geotagging and Fusion tables are becoming more popular, notes Rhys Little. Some of the best interactive maps on the Web include a map of bands that have appeared on the radio show "Best of British Unsigned" and a map showing activities and restaurants around Mobile Bay, Ala.

Google continues to provide a wealth of useful easy-to-use tools that can be used well in the classroom. Some of these are newer and some have been around for a while. All of these tools, as well as additional tools can be found at Google Options.

8. Google Trends - http://www.google.com/trends ;Google Trends, provided insights into the search terms people have been entering into the Google search engine.

9. Google Insights http://www.google.com/insights/searchGoogle Insights provides a visual representation of regional interest on a country's map. It displays top searches and rising searches that may help with keyword research. Results can be narrowed down with categories that are displayed for each search terms.

10. Google Art Project - http://www.googleartproject.comUsers can explore 17 museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share their own collection of masterpieces. This is an awesome resource for Art related activities

11. Google Swifty (beta) http://www.google.com/doubleclick/studio/swiffyAnnoyed that you can’t view Flash files on your iPad? You’re not alone, Google “Swiffy converts Flash SWF files to HTML5, allowing you to reuse Flash content on devices without a Flash player (such as iPhones and iPads).

13. Google Building Maker - http://sketchup.google.com/3dwh/buildingmaker.htmlBuilding Maker is a 3D modeling tool for adding buildings to Google Earth. It's fun to use, and an easy way to get on the 3D map. Here's how it works: Select a city from around the world. Make a building with photos we provide. Save your building and it will be reviewed. See your 3D building in Google Earth!

16. Google Talk http://www.google.com/talkGoogle Talk is Google’s approach to instant online communications. GTalk has an in-browser chat function, tied to the iGoogle and GMail pages, with both Video chat and Voice over IP connectivity available.

17. Google Alerts - http://www.google.com/alertsGoogle Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Enter the topic you wish to monitor, then click preview to see the type of results you'll receive.

18. Google Finance http://www.google.com/finance Google Finance is a wonderful tool include stock quotes, business information and news and interactive charts.

19. Google Translate http://translate.google.com/?hl=en#Google Translate is a free translation service that provides instant translations between 58 different languages. It can translate words, sentences and web pages between any combination of our supported languages. With Google Translate, we hope to make information universally accessible and useful, regardless of the language in which it’s written.

20. Google for Educators - http://www.google.com/educators/index.htmlAt Google, we support teachers in their efforts to empower students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. That’s why we’ve assembled the information and tools you’ll find on this page. Here, you’ll find a teacher’s guide to Google Tools for Your Classroom. And to spark your imagination, you'll find examples of innovative ways that other educators are using these tools in the classroom. While you’re here, you can sign up for the quarterly Google for Educators newsletter, as well as check out the latest from The Infinite Thinking Machine, a Google-sponsored, WestEd-produced blog for educators, by educators.

Reddit user IamNorris came up with a pretty ingenious use of Google Maps to instantly identify where poor people and rich people live in a region. His clever trick — which looks at California's Bay Area — is on the top of ...

This interactive map of coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island shows some basic flooding data including: 1) where are the flood warnings (essential the entire coastline), 2) how high the storm surge is, and 3) how high the waves are.

TED Talks In this short talk, TED Fellow Sarah Parcak introduces the field of "space archeology" -- using satellite images to search for clues to the lost sites of past civilizations.

The uses of geospatial technologies is NOT limited to studying geography, but it is the bedrock of many research projects that involve spatial thinking (as demonstrated in this TED talk). Geographic principles and geographers can be very important members of interdisciplinary teams.

This sounds really intruging to me; I have heard of astroarchiology before in the aplication of finding undiscovered large objects (cities, towns sttlements) by using satellites to map deviations in teh earths surface accurately enough to distingush structures like a building foundation. I just find this sort of thing fascinating. I am still in awe that this dort of thing is possible.

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Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
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